This invention relates to an improvement in a method for finishing clothes after being dry cleaned or washed to improve the wearing sensation and feeling of the clothes as well as their luster, smoothness, suppleness and fluffiness.
In the conventional finishing method, after clothes which are mainly made of animal hair such as wool are cleaned and dried, or after clothes which are made of blended yarn fabric of vegetable fiber and synthetic fiber (polyester, nylon etc.) are washed and dried, the clothes are hung from a rod in a sealed chamber, and moistened with steam to utilize the steam plasticity of protein fiber or synthetic fiber, thereby smoothing the wrinkles of the clothes. Hitherto, the finishing agent was sprayed on the clothes in advance by a manual trigger sprayer out of the sealed chamber or sprayed by a sprayer in a rotary drying machine for drying the clothes. The clothes were hung in a sealed chamber after spraying them in the conventional method. Recently, a new method has been developed whereby the finishing agent is supplied together with steam. In this method the finishing agent is injected in a pipe for feeding steam into the sealed chamber where it is vaporized by the steam and the resulting mixed vapor is then fed into the chamber.
The conventional method of spraying the agent outside of the sealed chamber by a manual trigger sprayer employs an ordinary pressure type sprayer nozzle which is generally sold in the market and which sprays particles of agent of approx. at least 100 microns in size. The drawback of this method is that particles of this size remain adhered to the outer surfaces of the clothes to be finished in a moistened state, and the agent does not penetrate to the inside or back surfaces of the clothes.
The method for adhering the agent to the clothes by spraying in a rotary drying machine allows the agent to adhere to the front and back surfaces of the clothes. The drawbacks to this method are that it requires the use of a separate rotary drying machine or dry cleaning machine having a rotary drying drum and that it uses an ordinary pressure type sprayer that sprays particles of agent 100 microns or more in size which adhere irregularly to the clothes.
The method for vaporizing the finishing agent by injecting it in the steam pipe is restricted to finishing agents that can be vaporized by steam, and accordingly the drawback to this method is that the types of finishing agents that can be used in this method are very limited.